Sandra, our EVP from New York, was in Singapore for a couple of weeks this month so we brought her around to a few restaurants to try out some of the food while she was here.
Birds of a Feather
On her first night, we had dinner with the whole Finance group in Singapore at Birds of a Feather, a restaurant in Amoy Street with interesting fusion food and a hipster vibe.
They presented their food in interesting ways, such as having dessert that came in a haze. Definitely totes instagrammable!
They are quite popular, so best get a reservation if you intend to go there. They were running a full house that night so we had to order the small plates in advance.
A Funny Surprise
On the second day, Sandra and Evelyn (my SVP) scheduled an informal catch up session with me over tea break. This was something that they scheduled with each one in our team, and something I appreciated because this was a chance for us to talk about what we wanted, work-wise, without it necessarily being a formal appraisal thing.
Once done, we headed back up, and to my surprise, they asked me to go into Evelyn’s office where the white board was now covered with this:
This was of course the work of my teammates Guohao and Yan Ming. Aside from writing “Congratulations” in different languages, they also wrote all the random Filipino words that they had learned over the years, even those that had no connection whatsoever. My Filipino friends were in stitches over those.
Sandra asked me and Guohao to step next to the board and the plant which was now decorated like a Christmas tree and announced that we were promoted!
Now I was surprised because promotions typically happen at year end, but Guohao even more so because he had just spent 30 minutes decorating a board for me, not knowing that he was also getting promoted. He looked like he didn’t realise what had just happened and we had to ask him if he understood. 😂
Yan Ming then swiftly inserted “& gh” under my name to seal the deal. This is definitely the most hilarious promotion announcement I have ever been a part of!
The Pelican
Later that night, we celebrated by having dinner at The Pelican, a seafood restaurant in One Fullerton with a view of the Marina Bay.
The service was abysmal – it was hard to get ahold of waiters and they messed up our drink orders and incorrectly charged us for drinks they never even brought over.
But the food is delicious, so the night wasn’t ruined for me, especially since the night breeze was cool enough for us to enjoy our al fresco table. My faves were the grilled seafood platter and snapper pie.
Badminton & Supper
On a Monday night, we tagged along at the badminton session that Guohao had organised for the office badminton group that he leads.
Some of us unexpectedly had to take calls so we were only able to play for less than an hour, but it was still fun, even though we suck at badminton and took forever to finish a match. 😅
We hadn’t had dinner so we decided to get supper at Bedok 85 afterwards. I love how that place is still at peak business even after 10 pm. We had our fill of chicken wings and seafood, and Sandra was so excited to get a fresh coconut.
Grab Durian
One time we grabbed poke bowls at Ohana Poke in Changi City Point for lunch, and Nic discovered that there was a Grab Durian van set up outside the mall.
Now durian is a super smelly fruit that most non Singaporeans can’t appreciate, so we were surprised when Sandra said she was game to try it. So Nic bought a small tasting platter for her and me, a non Singaporean, to try.
The platter had 3 kinds of durian on it which they chose: mao shan wang (the common favourite), golden bun, and red prawn.
Now I’ve tried durian before and never liked it. But to my surprise, I found myself enjoying the red prawn and golden bun. Sandra liked them both, too, especially the latter, but we both thought the mao shan wang was too strong and had Yan Ming finish it.
Rooftop Lunch, TWG, and Karaoke
On Sandra’s last day, we had lunch with her former department at Heritage One, a nearby Indian restaurant on a rooftop.
Later that night, we headed to TWG at Ion Orchard for a light dinner. Evelyn raved about their lobster and avocado salad so all the ladies ordered that and I really really love it! It has good quality lobster and avocado and a dressing that reminds me of green mango.
I paired it with a pot of my favourite TWG tea – Silver Moon, which smells like a fragrant bouquet.
After that, we took the MRT to Somerset and had a karaoke session at K Star in Orchard Central. It turns out Sandra really loves to sing, so this was a great way to spend her last night with us. She surprised us by knowing so many songs, including really up to date ones from Ed Sheeran.
We ended the night by giving Nic a super advance birthday muffin surprise. Then we had to rush back to Sandra’s hotel so she could grab her luggage and head to the airport.
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